Mmmm. It’s getting a slight bit cooler outside and that makes me crave rich, red meat.

Come on, I know I’m not the only one.

This amazing recipe for Mustard Beef Tenderloin looks like just the ticket.  See what YOU think!

Mustard Beef Tenderloin

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 4 beef tenderloin filets
• 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 3 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon pineapple juice
• 1 tablespoon dried tarragon
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Preparation:

Mix together mustard, vinegar, olive oil, pineapple juice, tarragon and pepper. Simmer in a saucepan until evenly heated. Keep warm. Preheat grill. Lightly pound filets with kitchen mallet and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place on grill and cook about 4 minutes on each side or until desired doneness. Remove from grill. Place about 2 tablespoons of mustard mixture on a plate and place filet onto the sauce.

Recipe courtesy of bbq.about.com.

Photo courtesy of KansasCitySteaks.com.

This meal looks so, so gorgeous, it’s almost too good to eat.

All right, it’s NEVER too good to eat. I can always bring myself to eat it.

But these steak tacos are be-uu-ti-ful . . .

Here’s the brilliant recipe created by The Healthy Irishman (he’s my new BFF even though we’ve never spoken, written or laid eyes on each other — it’s just something spiritual, steaky even.)

SIZZLING SUMMER STEAK TACOS

RECIPE:
Serves 4
1 lb flank steak
1 red pepper – sautéed
8 corn tortillas (2 per serving)

STEAK MARINADE:
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp chili powder
1 lime – zested
¼ cup olive oil
2 tsp salt
Mix marinade ingredients together and rub into steak. Marinate covered in the fridge from 4 hours to over-night.

AVOCADO SALSA:
1 large avocado – diced
1 Roma tomato – diced
1 tbsp fresh cilantro – chopped
squeeze fresh lime juice
S&P to taste

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat your grill on high.
Remove steak from fridge 30 minutes before grilling to let meat return to room temp.
Once grill is hot, cook steak for 3-5 minutes each side for medium-rare to medium.
NOTE: Very important to let the cooked meat rest for 10 minutes after grilling before carving. This lets the juices redistribute evenly back into the meat and not all over your cutting board.
While the meat is resting, mix all the salsa ingredients together and refrigerate.
TIP: When carving, slice thinly on the bias against the grain. (The grain being the lines you will see on the meat) Always cut across these otherwise the meat will taste chewy!

To assemble: place some sliced steak in each warmed tortillas along with some red pepper and finish with a nice dollop of the avocado salsa.

Thanks to TheHealthyIrishman.com for the photo and recipe.

My eternal love affair with all things beef continues . . .

The weather around here is heating up (thank goodness!) and so is our electric smoker. We broke it out this weekend to smoke up a wonderful beef brisket.

If you love beef, I’m telling ya, you’d love this brisket.

We just put a garlic, salt and pepper rub on the brisket before putting it in the smoker at 200 degrees F for 10 hours. Ours was about 13 lbs. so it was pretty big.

We then put some hickory wood chips and a couple of charcoal briquettes in the wood box, closed the door and voila!

We use a SmokinTex model 1400 cuz it’s so easy. And we like easy.

We actually did it overnight. So, as we slept, our brisket was smoking. What a delight to wake up the next morning to the smell of a smoked brisket!

We wrapped it in foil and let it sit in the oven (we didn’t turn it on) until we were ready to heat it up and serve it. About 45 minutes before we were ready to eat we heated it at 250 degrees in the oven. Just to warm it up.

Oh. Yum. 

We whipped up some mashed potatoes, had a salad, poured some BBQ sauce over it and we were set!

But that’s not all. Tomorrow I’ll show you what else we made . . .